Bochy looked him his eyes, stuck out his hand, and thanked him, telling Bonds that he hopes he comes back.

"I just want to let you know that we all really appreciated what you did,'' Bochy said. "It meant a lot to everyone here.''

Bonds thanked him in return, saying he was grateful for the one-week spring training invite as a guest instructor, which ends Sunday afternoon.

"I really had a good time here,'' Bonds told USA TODAY Sports. "It was fun working with everyone. I think I got to talk to everyone. They picked my brain pretty good.''

Who knows what impact Bonds will have during the course of the season, and perhaps the proof will be their performance.

"You got to do it out there,'' Bonds said, pointing toward the playing field. "It's like Bruce Lee used to say. The board doesn't hit back.''

Bonds laughed heartily. He's in good spirits, just as he has been all week.

Bonds, an alumnus of Arizona State, was scheduled to visit his Arizona State University campus Saturday night for a player reunion at Packard Stadium, their last season in the 40-year facility. He wanted to see it one final time before they tear down the stadium, moving next year to Phoenix Municipal Stadium, which is being abandoned by the Oakland A's as their spring-training facility.

"A lot of great memories,'' Bonds says.

And this week, putting on a Giants' uniform for the first time in seven years, jogged plenty of those memories itself. He was picking up the bat again, instructing hitters, letting them pick his brain and providing feedback.

There was no talk of performance-enhancing drug allegations. No talk of his obstruction of justice conviction, which he is appealing. It was all baseball

"He was awesome,'' Giants hitting coach Hensley Muelens said. "He worked hard. He told me the first day he would do anything I needed.

"And he did.''

Bonds was at the stadium at 8 a.m. Saturday for batting practice for a split-squad game at 1 p.m., and was still in uniform and sitting on the bench for the second game against the Oakland A's.

"Long days,'' Bonds said, laughing. "You put in a lot of hours as a coach.''

Bonds, who made no commitments to return to the Giants, says he plans to spend the rest of the summer riding his bike. He recently moved back to San Francisco, and plans to be roaming the hills instead of roaming the minors as a guest instructor.